Video: Mixing philosophies

We've come to a very exciting portion of the course, the mix, but before we dive in and actually mix I would like to discuss my mixing philosophies and approaches for a few moments. What we're looking at here is the Arrange window of the final mix. I have all my tracks in the order that I like them to be in and if we take a moment to look at that I prefer to put the vocals up top, I like to group the instruments in sections. So we have vocals, vocal samples, drums from low frequency on up starting with the kick drum, the top loops and the year candy to the crash cymbal, the transitional sounds and then the bass followed by the keyboards and if I were to have guitars in a mix I would put them after the keyboards, but I like to think of my mix like a house, you built the foundation first and then you construct the rest of the house.

In this course, author Josh Harris demonstrates constructing a remix using only a pre-existing vocal track as a starting point. The course shows how to time-stretch vocals, offers suggestions for establishing a musical direction, and explains how to audition and layer Apple loops. The course also covers programming beats using synths, generating vocal samples, arranging the remix, and creating master-quality final mixes.

Mixing philosophies

We've come to a very exciting portion of the course, the mix, but before we divein and actually mix I would like to discuss my mixing philosophies andapproaches for a few moments.What we're looking at here is the Arrange window of the final mix.I have all my tracks in the order that I like them to be in and if we take amoment to look at that I prefer to put the vocals up top, I like to group theinstruments in sections.So we have vocals, vocal samples, drums from low frequency on up starting withthe kick drum, the top loops and the year candy to the crash cymbal, thetransitional sounds and then the bass followed by the keyboards and if I were tohave guitars in a mix I would put them after the keyboards, but I like to thinkof my mix like a house, you built the foundation first and then you constructthe rest of the house.

Another way to think of a mix is if you're in the Goodyear blimp and you werestaring down on a baseball field and the vocal is the pitcher's mound and homeplate is the kick drum.All of this imagery helps me while I'm sitting down to dial in vocal, dial inthe low end and a cymbal of mix;this is a very critical part of the process.If you're able to make your mixes sound finished people will respond in acompletely different manner than if your mixes sound unfinished.As you can see I actually have a track that I don't need this was a placeholdera duplicate track of the vocal sample box samples track.

So I'm actually going to delete this and I'll delete the automation data.So one thing that will help you when you're actually sitting down to begin themix, is to really make sure that this Arrange window was organized.Color coat different sections if that's what helps you, make sure that yourtracks are named the way that you would like them to be named and allowyourself to have a streamlined set up, so that you're not getting lost in your own arrangement.Let's take a look at the mixer window. I hit Command+2 and I'll pops the mixer window.

The track order on the arrange window corresponds to the left right track orderon the mixer window.If I wanted to rename something on the mixer window it would rename onthe Arrange window.So as we take a look at the mixer window from left to right, again, vocals,drums, bass and the rest of the keyboards, I've gone ahead and set up reverbsand delays and some extra effects that I'll get to as we dive deeper into the mixing process.Now you'll notice on the master fader I do have what I call a mastering chain.

Some of my colleagues feel that it's not a great idea to actually assemble yourfinal mix with mastering plug-ins on the master fader, I feel that for remixing,and my history in remixing, that it is a good idea, you just have to be verycareful with how you set up your mastering chain.This is a very conservative mastering chain composed of all logic plug-ins andonce you begin to understand what each plug-in does, it's very easy to set themin a conservative fashion.Some of the mastering plug-in presets for the channel strip,if I click down here, you see a whole list of different mastering scenarios and alot of these mastering channels strip presets are little bit heavy-handed and ifyou just slap them on your mix they may not flatter your mix.

What I've done is setup my own mastering chain that allows me to build my finalmix and because these settings are so conservative, it's not really an issue. AndI will tell a brief story in my second remix for major-label years ago.I turned in a mixed down of the final mix and I had nothing on the master faderand the volume was very low.The A&R person who is A&R in the remix didn't like the way the mix sounded andalmost rejected it, but it was nice enough to give me a chance to resubmit itand I applied what I would call mastering simulation on the track whichbasically made it louder and punchier and it sounded finished.

This is the sheen that a finished track has, and once I resubmitted the track hewas very happy with the way it sounded and the mix was accepted.So you have to take it case by case. If you're able to have a professionalmastering engineer master your mix then all you would need to do would be todisengage these plug-ins bypass them by holding down the Option key and clickingand simply pull down this master fader, so that there is several DB of headroomup here and send the mastering engineer a stereo wave file bounce of your mix.

But in this day and age our budgets are tight, most of us don't have the luxuryof a mastering engineer taking our mix at the final stages.So I learned early on to simulate my own mastering and there have been manyscenarios where I've actually had my mastered mix, this mastering setup here bethe final-final that winds up being played on the radio or goes to club DJs.So take the time to play with this it will help your mix sound finished.As we move back to the arrange window again as we scroll up and down and look atthe different tracks.

The channel strip settings for each track do appear in the Inspector window andI also use this window during the mixing process.To access automation we just simply hit A and that brings us to the automationwindow and all of the plug-ins including the volume and pan are accessible herewe click and hold and whatever plug- ins are actually on the channel strip, andwe'll use the vocal as an example, you see the tape delay send three and all ofthese parameters for each plug-in are available to you in the automation window.

So you can do some very interesting things with filtering, volume, swells,panning, filter cut off, things of that nature.We just click A and it takes us back to the Arrange window.So I hope that this gives you a nice tour of logic arrange in mixing window witha mix that's in its final stages.Again use caution with the mastering plug-ins. I actually put them on at thevery beginning and I build my mix with them on, but it will take a moment foryou to get a handle on what the limiter does, what the compressor does, and inthis session in the exercise files I have provided you with my channel stripssetup which you're welcome to use as a jumping off point for your own mixes.

If you would like to understand on a deeper level just what these plug-ins do,please check out Logic Pro 9 Essential Training with Scott Hirsch, available onthe Lynda.com Online Training Library.

Learn by watching, listening, and doing, Exercise files are the same files the author uses in the course, so you can download them and follow along Premium memberships include access to all exercise files in the library.

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Learn by watching, listening, and doing! Exercise files are the same files the author uses in the course, so you can download them and follow along. Exercise files are available with all Premium memberships.
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